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3.73 AVERAGE
3.73 AVERAGE
As a Thriller.. I can’t say I’d call this one “thrilling”. Promising, yes.
A young female newlywed goes missing. Nearly 10 years later she reappears on her husband’s (and his current wife’s) doorstep.
The story line is very linear. It reads quick and I wouldn’t say it’s boring but it is.. lacking.
There’s honestly just not enough characters to make it exciting. There’s no red herring and therefore the culprit/ending we expect is pretty much what we get.
A young female newlywed goes missing. Nearly 10 years later she reappears on her husband’s (and his current wife’s) doorstep.
The story line is very linear. It reads quick and I wouldn’t say it’s boring but it is.. lacking.
There’s honestly just not enough characters to make it exciting. There’s no red herring and therefore the culprit/ending we expect is pretty much what we get.
Free uncorrected ARC from Net Galley.
I’ve read Minka Kent before and had this same thought — I like her actual writing. It’s easy and descriptive, includes random details that I enjoy, BUT the stories are lacking. So I like the writer, but not necessarily what she writes.
Lydia was kidnapped 9 years ago (personally I think 9 was too long. She would not have been healthy mentally or physically after 9 years — maybe change it to 2 or 3). She is held captive and has awful things happen to her. Lydia is able to flee her kidnapper when he shoots her in the shoulder and leaves her for dead.
Lydia returns to Bent Creek, Oregon and “surprises” her husband, Luca. She’d only been married to him for 3 months before she was taken. He’s now married to Merritt and has two kids. Spoiler: Luca is the one who kidnapped and held her prisoner for 9 years.
Lydia worries for Merritt and the kids after she finds a life insurance policy for them. She realizes he cashed in on her policy, which is where he got the money to start his successful restaurant business. Well, successful until recently, because now they’re broke.
Spoiler: Merritt is actually the mastermind behind Lydia’s kidnapping. She even found Lydia and told Luca to get her to marry him, I guess so he could take out a life insurance policy on her — Also, somehow that’s never explained, Merritt knew Lydia had no family or friends and would be an easy target. ANYway, blah blah showdown where Merritt kills Luca and leaves Lydia knocked unconscious (except not really) and sets the house on fire but Spoiler: Delphine, whom Lydia just met and has been living with, rescues Lydia. She saw that Lydia had used Delphine’s phone to order an Uber and followed her to the address she provided on the app.
The Luca as kidnapper twist was fun but not totally surprising. But the Merritt as mastermind twist was great!
I’ve read Minka Kent before and had this same thought — I like her actual writing. It’s easy and descriptive, includes random details that I enjoy, BUT the stories are lacking. So I like the writer, but not necessarily what she writes.
Lydia was kidnapped 9 years ago (personally I think 9 was too long. She would not have been healthy mentally or physically after 9 years — maybe change it to 2 or 3). She is held captive and has awful things happen to her. Lydia is able to flee her kidnapper when he shoots her in the shoulder and leaves her for dead.
Lydia returns to Bent Creek, Oregon and “surprises” her husband, Luca. She’d only been married to him for 3 months before she was taken. He’s now married to Merritt and has two kids. Spoiler: Luca is the one who kidnapped and held her prisoner for 9 years.
Lydia worries for Merritt and the kids after she finds a life insurance policy for them. She realizes he cashed in on her policy, which is where he got the money to start his successful restaurant business. Well, successful until recently, because now they’re broke.
Spoiler: Merritt is actually the mastermind behind Lydia’s kidnapping. She even found Lydia and told Luca to get her to marry him, I guess so he could take out a life insurance policy on her — Also, somehow that’s never explained, Merritt knew Lydia had no family or friends and would be an easy target. ANYway, blah blah showdown where Merritt kills Luca and leaves Lydia knocked unconscious (except not really) and sets the house on fire but Spoiler: Delphine, whom Lydia just met and has been living with, rescues Lydia. She saw that Lydia had used Delphine’s phone to order an Uber and followed her to the address she provided on the app.
The Luca as kidnapper twist was fun but not totally surprising. But the Merritt as mastermind twist was great!
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
3.5⭐️ enjoyed the flow of the story, kept it interesting… good twists which were predictable but still shocking… cruelty and lack of empathy and humanity of some characters is scary and the fact that this can happen to someone in RL is just sad
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Violence, Kidnapping
Moderate: Rape
3.5 stars because I figured it out sooner than I liked. Short but good!
A twisted read indeed. This story is told in dual POV and in the short pages manages to cover most of the information required to keep the reader informed. Lydia is a missing woman who shows up 10 years later alive and with a story. Merrit is the wife of Lydia’s old husband. They live the dreams Lydia and Luca planned to live prior to her abduction. Yet not all is what it seems. Everyone has secrets with troubled pasts that brew into mysterious futures. It’s almost predictable except it’s not entirely predictable in the end. You’ll miss the key pieces. I do wonder though why the big twist to avoid spoiling for anyone occurred? It felt a little anticlimactic and I found myself uttering why go through all the trouble only to end in the way it ended. That’s sort of the beauty in books the alternative endings and the questions up for discussion.
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes